Waste to energy in the UK mostly means one thing: burning residual rubbish in energy-from-waste (EfW) incinerators that raise steam and drive a turbine. Landfill gas and anaerobic digestion add smaller amounts. The “advanced” technologies that often appear in news stories, such as plasma gasification, have a much weaker track record, and two of the best-known UK projects failed expensively.
According to the government’s Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES 2026), EfW plants generated about 10.7 TWh of electricity in 2025, roughly 3.6% of all UK generation. Only about half of that counts as renewable, because only the biodegradable part of the waste (food, paper, wood) is treated as renewable. The rest comes from non-biodegradable material such as plastics.
How it works
Incineration with energy recovery
Most EfW plants burn residual municipal, commercial and industrial waste directly to raise steam that drives a turbine. Defra’s 2014 guide to the energy-from-waste debate puts the overall electrical efficiency of this route at 15–27%, with modern plants at the top end.
Using the heat as well as the electricity, in combined heat and power (CHP), raises overall efficiency significantly, which is why Defra says sites with heat customers should be favoured. Not every plant that generates power counts as “recovery” in law. Under the Waste Framework Directive, a municipal plant must pass an energy-efficiency test (the R1 formula); less efficient plants are classed as disposal even if they produce electricity.
Gasification, pyrolysis and plasma
Gasification and pyrolysis heat waste with little or no oxygen to produce a combustible syngas, mainly hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Pyrolysis also yields oils and char. The syngas can simply raise steam, or it can be cleaned and burned in gas engines or turbines, or converted into transport fuels or synthetic natural gas. Plasma gasification is a variant that uses an electric plasma torch at very high temperature, leaving a glassy slag. Together these are known as Advanced Thermal Treatment (ATT).
Biological routes
Landfill gas is methane-rich biogas captured from decomposing waste in landfill sites. Anaerobic digestion (AD) treats separated food and farm waste in sealed tanks, producing biogas and a digestate fertiliser; for more on how organic material is used for power, see our guide to biomass energy. At the small end of the scale, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) use bacteria to break down organic matter and capture part of the energy directly as electricity.
Real-world examples
ATT promised higher efficiency than burning waste directly. In 2014 Defra described those higher-efficiency routes as “technically difficult, relatively unproven at commercial scale”. UK experience since has borne that out.
Air Products, Teesside
In April 2016 Air Products abandoned its two plasma gasification plants in the Tees Valley. The company said testing had shown design and operational challenges that would take significant time and cost to fix. It expected a write-down of US$900m–1bn and left the energy-from-waste business altogether. The plants were meant to process 700,000 tonnes a year of non-recyclable waste and power about 100,000 homes, according to The Chemical Engineer.
Energy Works, Hull
Energy Works was a 24 MW advanced gasification plant designed to take 240,000 tonnes a year of refuse-derived fuel. In 2023 it handled just under 31,000 tonnes. Its owner, Evero, ceased operations in 2024 after legal issues and processing well below forecast. The plant was sold to Ashcourt Group, which planned to bid to bring it back online in the first half of 2026. We could not confirm whether it has restarted.
Plastic-to-fuel pyrolysis
Pyrolysis can turn mixed plastics into oils that are refined into fuels or used as feedstock for new plastics, often called chemical recycling. Swindon-based Recycling Technologies, a plastics pyrolysis developer, entered administration in October 2022 after failing to secure funding. Plastic Energy, which is headquartered in the UK, commissioned a pilot plant at Loughborough University Science & Enterprise Park in August 2023; its commercial plants are outside the UK.
Microbial fuel cells at Glastonbury
UWE Bristol’s “Pee Power” urinal at Glastonbury Festival in June 2015 used 432 MFCs and produced about 300 mW on average (400 mW at peak) from around 1,000 users a day, according to the team’s 2016 paper. That was enough for lighting inside the urinal. At about a third of a watt, it shows MFCs suit off-grid lighting and sensors rather than grid power. Our article on bacterial batteries covers the technology in more depth.
What the numbers say
All figures below are from DUKES 2026 and refer to 2025 unless stated.
- EfW (incineration): 5,348 GWh from the biodegradable fraction plus 5,365 GWh from non-biodegradable wastes, about 10.7 TWh in total, or 3.6% of UK generation. DUKES assumes around half of municipal waste is biodegradable, so roughly half of EfW output counts as renewable.
- EfW capacity: 1,628 MW at the end of 2025, up from 413 MW in 2010 and 930 MW in 2015. Renewable EfW generation rose from about 1.5 TWh in 2010 to 5.3 TWh in 2025.
- Anaerobic digestion: 3,579 GWh (1.22% of generation) from 640 MW of capacity. Sewage gas added 957 GWh.
- Landfill gas: 2,680 GWh (0.91%) from 1,060 MW. Output peaked at 5.3 TWh in 2011 and has fallen every year since, as less biodegradable waste goes to landfill.
- Heat: wastes supplied 7.4% of UK renewable heat fuel in 2025.
To see how these sources sit alongside wind, gas and nuclear in real time, check our live GB electricity mix.
On efficiency, Defra’s 2014 guide says raising steam from gasification is “no more efficient than from incineration”, and the energy needed to run the equipment can make the whole process less efficient than conventional burning.
Subsidy did not tip the balance either. Under the Renewables Obligation, ATT plants received 2 ROCs per MWh (falling to 1.9 in 2015/16 and 1.8 in 2016/17), compared with 1 ROC per MWh for EfW with CHP, according to Defra’s 2014 guide.
Limitations and honest assessment
Carbon: waste contains biogenic carbon (food, paper, wood) and fossil carbon (plastics). As the electricity grid decarbonises, Defra says efficiency alone no longer keeps EfW ahead of landfill in carbon terms; the biogenic content of the waste becomes critical. CHP plants, it says, can stay ahead of landfill into the foreseeable future.
Plastic-derived fuels: burning fuel made from plastic releases fossil CO2, just as burning plastic in an incinerator does. A 2017 Argonne National Laboratory study found pyrolysis diesel cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 14% compared with conventional diesel, a modest gain.
Advanced thermal treatment: the two flagship UK projects described above either never entered commercial service or ran far below capacity.
Microbial fuel cells: useful for small off-grid loads, but nowhere near grid scale.
The UK angle
Incineration versus recycling
Government policy in England, set out by Defra in 2014, is that EfW should not compete with recycling, reuse and prevention, and should ideally support them. The stated aim is to get the most energy out of residual waste, not the most waste into energy recovery. Defra accepts that at a local level the risk of EfW competing with recycling “does exist”, but says flexible contracts and plants can avoid it. Critics argue that long contracts guaranteeing waste tonnages can lock councils into burning material that could otherwise be recycled.
The figures for England show the scale of incineration. In 2024/25, 50.3% of local authority collected waste (12.7 million tonnes) was incinerated, with or without energy recovery, while 41.2% (10.4 million tonnes) was recycled or composted and 5.5% went to landfill, according to Defra. Incineration’s share rose from about 48% in 2020/21.
Scotland and Wales have taken a different line. In March 2021 the Welsh Government imposed a moratorium on new large-scale EfW plants of 10 MW or more. In June 2022 the Scottish Government accepted all twelve recommendations of the independent Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury review and said it does not support further municipal waste incineration capacity in Scotland, with very limited exceptions. The review had found that planned capacity would exceed Scotland’s needs. We found no equivalent moratorium in England.
Carbon pricing for incinerators
In July 2023 the UK ETS Authority said the UK Emissions Trading Scheme would expand to cover energy from waste and waste incineration from 2028. Only fossil CO2 would be priced, not biogenic CO2, so operators must measure the split; the aim is to encourage measures such as removing plastics before burning. A voluntary monitoring-only period started on 1 January 2026. In August 2026, however, the Authority confirmed the expansion will not take place in 2028 as planned, and said a new timeline will be set out in due course.
Councils are worried about the cost. In a Local Government Association survey of English councils in January and February 2025, 93% of those responding said they could cover extra ETS costs from their waste budgets only to a small extent or not at all. Northern Ireland’s EfW plants fall under the EU ETS under the Windsor Framework.
Frequently asked questions
How much of the UK’s electricity comes from burning waste?
In 2025 EfW plants generated about 10.7 TWh, roughly 3.6% of UK electricity, according to DUKES 2026. About half of that counts as renewable.
What technologies convert waste into usable energy?
The established ones are incineration with energy recovery, landfill gas capture and anaerobic digestion. Gasification, pyrolysis and plasma gasification exist but have a poor UK track record at commercial scale. Microbial fuel cells have been trialled for small off-grid uses.
Why did plasma gasification fail in Teesside?
Air Products said in 2016 that testing had revealed design and operational challenges that would take significant time and cost to fix. It abandoned the two plants, expected a write-down of US$900m–1bn and left the energy-from-waste business.
Is energy from waste renewable?
Only partly. Energy from the biodegradable fraction of waste counts as renewable; energy from plastics and other fossil-based material does not. DUKES assumes around half of municipal waste is biodegradable.
Will incinerators pay a carbon price under the UK ETS?
That was planned from 2028, covering fossil CO2 only. In August 2026 the UK ETS Authority confirmed it will not happen in 2028 and has not yet set a new date.
Does burning waste discourage recycling?
Defra accepts the risk exists locally but says it can be avoided. Critics point to long contracts that guarantee waste supply. In England, more council waste is now incinerated (50.3% in 2024/25) than recycled or composted (41.2%), and Scotland and Wales have both moved to limit new incinerator capacity.